maskormenacelogs | Let's live it up

Entry tags:

Let's live it up

WHO: YOU.
WHERE: De Chima, VA.
WHEN: Saturday August 9th.
WHAT: Registration in motion... among other things.
WARNINGS: None anticipated; please let us know if this should be edited.

" The new frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises -- it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It appeals to their pride, not to their pocketbook -- it holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security. But I tell you the new frontier is here, whether we seek it or not. "
( from jfk's speech "the new frontier," 7/15/1960. )

While known for being surprisingly quiet compared to other bustling cities like Nonah, De Chima is loud and packed this weekend with news of the Swearing-In Ceremony being held at one of its lavish halls this evening. Spreading like wildfire, people from nearby cities show up at the hall in attendance, many there for the publicity or for the opportunity to meet an imPort themselves. There's no shortage of non-locals in the hall and one may even begin to wonder if just how many non-locals outnumber the De Chima residents who are attending the ceremony.

The hall is brimming with excitement, with members of City Hall having joined the party (but the Mayor had other business to attend to, sorry!) to public figures who've decided to make an appearance much to the surprise of the media who are present (as usual) at these events. Reggie Pressley, Swaggy-Swag McSwag, Bartolomeo Zoccarato, and London Marriott can be found around the hall, some being interviewed by the local media, getting their photographs taken, or giving out autographs to those who ask. Marriott in particular will be poking around imPorts for juicy gossip and other information. Other public figures who have made an appearance tonight are local businessmen and women from the city itself, scouting imPorts in the hopes some will take an interest in their work. While many are looking for imPorts to work in computer, research, and medical fields, there are many entry level jobs in data entry, paying slightly more than minimum wage. These business folk will be around till the end of the event, handing out their cards to anyone who takes an interest.

If anyone is paying close attention to the De Chima locals who are attending, or if they had been out exploring the city earlier, they will have noticed something... peculiar about many of them. Silky smooth hair, unblemished skin that almost radiates, straight, white teeth, perfect eyebrows, noses, jawlines... you name it. These people are good looking and they know it, but more importantly, you can be, too! There are various doctors in the hall, make beelines for identifiable imPorts, and they apparently haven't established what boundaries are. If they can, they will grab a hold of an imPort's arm, shoulder, or boldly go for the hips and babble about their appearances, offering their cards and pointing out any flaws (or perfections that can be improved) the imPort has. "I can help you with that," they'll say about crooked noses, scars, wrinkles, anyone with a little extra weight, etc. A few may forget they're here on business and flirt with the adult imPorts, taken in by good looks (or other appealing features). One particular doctor, Dr. Nic, a man with buoyant personality, will be trying to pass around as many of his business cards as he can.

There are long tables set up overflowing with all kinds of food and drink. Alcohol is served at a bar where ID is a must, so sorry to anyone under twenty-one! There's a space in the middle of the main room of the hall for dancing, where Swaggy-Swag McSwag will domineer unless someone wants to challenge him to a dance-off.

In one corner of the hall, a small crowd has gathered to watch local businessmen exhibit their latest invention: a roomba with musical capabilities! At the top of the room is a slot to fit portable music players and it has wi-fi capabilities, allowing it to connect to someone's music folder from their computers. Like many roombas of the current time, it displays low level intelligence, able to repeat a couple of basic phrases. It also purrs at some point, which results in the crowd glancing at one another with perplexed expressions.

Unsurprisingly, or perhaps surprisingly to imPorts, is stricter than usual tonight. Before entering the hall, security checks everyone's belongings at the door. Jackets are scanned, purses are checked, sometimes pockets are asked to be emptied. Security will ask this of everyone, so don't pick a fight at the door unless you want to be escorted off the premise! Inside the hall, there's a security guard or two at every doorway and roaming up and down the other hallways.

The event begins at 5PM and ends around midnight, but imPorts are free to linger. De Chima is also known for its rainy weather and today is no exception, unfortunately. It pours outside and will continue even late into the night, so imPorts better take care not to wet their nicely done hair or clothes!

( Please state your character's official status -- REGISTERED or UNSETTLED -- in the subject header of your thread. Please also read and state your character's official status at THIS post, considering not every character will post a starter thread!

Additionally, NPCs will not be NPC'd by a mod, but players are welcome to utilize them as they wish, provided it's within reasonable bounds. (Don't shank anyone!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ It's not long before an equally discomforted imPort joins Scully's side, keeping himself pressed as far back from eyes on the lookout for people with "imperfections" and scars and whatever excuses these doctors will come up with on the spot to shove their business cards into his hands. The fact a good number of them have brought up his nose makes him feel quite self-conscious about his appearance, so he winds up rubbing at his nose, wondering if it's really as long as they say it is.

His shoulders are taut with both apprehension and vague irritation. He continues to rub his nose, muttering under his breath that he can't help the kind of nose he has.

And that's when he seems to snap out of his thoughts, alerted to Scully's presence. He startles at first, dropping his hand quickly out of embarrassment, cheeks growing a faint red. ]

A-Ah, that was... [ There's no excuse for it. ] Sorry. Did you hear all that?

[At first Scully thinks to deny it, turning her curious gaze away and sucking on her lower lip. This is a situation in which the polite avoidance of boundaries she's already overstepped might not be the most apt, though. She's collected her fair share of business cards herself tonight, each one taken with an unwavering, indignant stare which had done her little good, though it had soothed her simmering anger.]

Your nose is fine.

[She glances back over with a wry, sympathetic smile.]

My nose is fine.

[Personally, she'd rather settle for unremarkable. A nice face is trouble, and hers has been trouble enough as it is.]

They've got a lot of gall.

[ Though it's meant to soothe his worries, the blush on his face ends up deepening, embarrassed that a complete stranger needs to tell him something he should be able to determine on his own. Truthfully, it's a bit difficult when he's quite the self-conscious and easily provoked young man he is.

He swallows lightly, turning his face away quickly and giving his nose another hasty rub. ]

They really do... Even the local businesswomen and men here aren't badgering others as much as these doctors are.

[ He shrinks back slightly noticing one of the doctors from earlier making another round, not wanting to be seen. When he passes through without catching onto Gil or Scully he breathes a relieved sigh. ]

Isn't that unprofessional of them?

Edited (words) 2014-08-10 20:17 (UTC)

I'd say business must be bad if it didn't look like precisely the opposite was true.

[Scully shakes her head disapprovingly.]

Plastic surgery can do a lot of good, but this...

[Truth be told she's never found the idea of plastic surgery for profit easy to swallow. Feeding on people's insecurity and vanity doesn't sit right with her, as a doctor. She understands why people do it, and she's no doubt that the patients gain something of personal value to them, but it's a far cry from what she thought she'd be doing when she was in med school. Then again, so is what she actually does.]

It's certainly unethical.

[ He's not quite certain unethical is the word for it, but he's not all too familiar with cosmetic procedures and whatnot, despite having lived in the "modern" words for a little over two years now. There's still a lot to learn about this strange time he finds himself thrust into.

The severity of Scully's words reveal something about her. Something that gets a brow lifted in surprise. ]

You're an imPort?

[After a few moments' pause, Scully presses her lips together in displeasure and hikes up her sleeve to show the markings at her wrist. She can't say she approves of that, either. It isn't the first time she's been tagged and tracked, but at least the last lot had had the decency to make it unobtrusive. That they'd nearly killed her plenty of times over in the process is the only reason she doesn't find them preferable in retrospect.]

Fresh off the boat.

[The term, used at home to belittle, to draw artificial distinctions between self and other, seems apt here. Already she's been treated as a person of note in ways that even at home, where she'd played a role in antagonising a global conspiracy, she never would have anticipated.]

You?

[ Gil's eyes shift warily from one end of the room to the other, half-worried about drawing attention to them as he does the same. He curves his shoulder so his arm can't be seen too easily, tugging his sleeve up to reveal REGISTERED displayed neatly across his wrist.

And as someone passes near them, in a hasty movement he yanks the sleeve back down. ]

I've been here a few months now. There are a number of us who have also been around a while.

[ That's not even going back to the group that arrived from a different universe with a similar Porter. ]

And they keep making you go to these things?

[She sounds faintly disgusted, as though she can't imagine a bigger waste of time -- and frankly she can't. It's obscene, dragging people -- what? Across the boundaries between timelines? Universes? Doing whatever it is they're doing to the laws of physics and to the people they steal and strongly encouraging them to attend parties for show.]

Surely they have better things for us to do than that. I thought that was the idea.

Oh no, not at all.

[ He waves his hand from side to side, looking at her both apologetically and sheepishly for providing an answer that could have been misinterpreted. ]

Some attend these events all the time, but not at all. I only came since I've never been to this city.

[ But he's regretting it somewhat. The lack of personal boundaries and invasive questions about his appearance is an automatic turnoff for Gil. ]

[Scully presses her lips together and nods. Well, that's something, at least. Still...]

Lucky you.

[Her voice is dry, but her sarcasm is sympathetic. Clearly her ire isn't directed at Gil.]

Personally I don't think I'll be sticking around.

[ It earns his sympathies regardless. Gil visibly loosens up beside her, only on occasion peering out toward the crowd to ensure they can maintain their conversation without disruption from a doctor or other local looking for imPort attention. ]

You don't have to... or register, if you would prefer not to.

[Scully shakes her head after a moment's pause. It occurs to her that this person might not be what he appears, that he might be speaking to her in an attempt to measure her willingness to play ball, or for other interests. But an announcement of intent doesn't have to reveal too much, not if she's careful.]

There are things I need to know. I'll need resources.

[She'll need access. She doesn't have to agree with what's being done here to know that much, and her years at the FBI have taught her where to be ruthless with her own integrity.]

[ Her response surprises him, but there's something in his expression that hints at understanding why she need to do this. He did the exact same, after all; if there is something shadier lurking beneath the government's exterior, then he wants to know what it is. He still doesn't know if they're worth trusting, but he'll use what he has to from them in order to find out. ]

Registering may help you, then.

[ Or friends and/or allies on both sides. ]

[Scully, for her part, has made up her mind as to whether or not the government is worth trusting: they aren't, not in her world and not in this one, in which the actions made stink even more foully of precisely the sorts of things she and Mulder had been trying to unveil. In a way it's almost a relief: if there are plots to be thwarted and truths to be revealed, she has a purpose here, one of her own rather than the one handed to her in a dossier unasked.]

I certainly hope so.

[She says it with a world-weariness that betrays her uncertainty, her disbelief that even the resources an immensely powerful government can provide -- is willing to provide, and that is of course the operative point -- she'll be able to get anywhere of value. There are more of them, and they have every advantage. It's a situation to which she is well accustomed.]

I really do.

[She offers a small, tired smile.]

Did it get you anywhere? If you don't mind my asking.

[ He thinks on his answer for a moment. True, the financial assistance has been beneficiary to his moving across states to settle into Maurtia Falls. He had already found a job without their assistance, too, but he hadn't trusted them to not put him into another job like the tea shop where he would have to deal with a hoard of young women for customers. Concentrating on the job had been a bit difficult when those women were asking for his service, though the extra tips had been helpful. ]

It helped when I moved cities.

[ It then occurs to him he hasn't actually taken full advantage of these benefits. ]

However, I'm satisfied enough with my job and apartment. It comes in handy for those looking to start their own businesses or working in a difficult field.

[ It hasn't gotten him anything he wants, which is mainly answers on the Porter. However, he had also missed an opportunity while he had been ported out during the paintball game. ]

[Scully nods. It's more or less as she'd feared -- unless he's holding something back, and she doesn't think that he is, being inside versus out isn't guaranteed to get a person answers.]

That's a good start.

[For all her doom and gloom, it really is a good start. Better than the alternative, anyway. She doesn't relish the idea of being forced to fend for herself in an alien world, even if it isn't all that alien, while still pursuing her own answers. Her own way home. A memory from years ago surfaces and she casts her gaze towards the floor. She remembers the sterile smell of the hospital, the antiseptic smell of the modern tomb and her indignation at the words: The truth will save you, Scully. I think it'll save both of us.

She'd been aware at the time that he'd needed the words more than she did, needed to say them and to believe them, however long they'd already spent on their trek and however hollow that word rang, truth, spoken so often to have become meaningless, nothing more than shorthand for an expanse of concepts they couldn't hope to even begin to wrestle and contain. Now, though, she thinks he might have the right of it.]

I suppose they're not exactly likely to give us any more than they have to. Just enough that we have something to lose, not enough to let us get away.

[ Something he's beginning to wonder, but having been a member of Pandora for some time, it's easier to gain access to information others might not be privy to if you're already on the inside. As he's also learned, sometimes those on the inside may not know the truth either, though it's waiting for someone to stumble upon it. ]

Unfortunately the government, no matter where you are I'm learning, won't give out its secrets.

[ To them it could a matter of national security. It could be something they don't want imPorts to know and to keep stringing them along. Who knows? But Gil would like to. It seems this woman as well. ]

That isn't how governments operate, isn't it?

It's how they have to operate, to a point.

[Spoken like someone who knows, like an insider perhaps. There's really no use pretending otherwise; Scully is a perfectly good liar when she absolutely has to be, but that doesn't mean she relishes it. She wants to be able to trust people here, though she knows that's a stretch, and trust is give and take.]

It's hard to assess some of what governments have to do without all the information, and not everybody is going to have all the information. Some if it is kept secret to keep people safe.

[She gives a half shrug, a soft sigh.]

But then there's the rest of it. I don't think they're too invested in keeping us safe, beyond a point.

[ She's been here maybe a few hours or a day or two and presumes that much already? He wonders what exactly is going on through her head to be so suspicious and guarded around the government. He knows people who detest authority figures, but it doesn't appear to be the case with this woman. Just a lot of skepticism. ]

It's difficult to tell...

You don't think so at all?

I think defaulting to suspicion is safer than choosing to trust without having all the information.

[She gives the young man a searching look, as though assessing how much she can say, how much it'll matter if she does choose to say something -- whether it will be an indiscretion, whether or not he'll really follow. There are some things which can't, she suspects, be fully understood by people who have't experienced them.]

I worked for the government. At home, I mean. Not really that different from this one, I don't think. Eight years. Long enough to know that some of the secrets people with power keep are for their own good, not anyone else's.

[ How can he argue with that when he had done the same when they first arrived in mid-January? The answer is that he can't; this woman is sharp, either due to experience or quickly learning to adapt to this place.

And then she explains what her career is back home and it all begins to make sense to him. ]

Does your world deal with superheroes? [ She said it wasn't that different, but so far he's met people tonight who haven't come from a world with the kind of heroes they have here. ] ... I haven't introduced myself, have I? It's Gilbert.

Dana. Dana Scully.

[She accepts the introduction with a nod, a silent pleased to meet you.]

We don't have superheroes at home, no. We only tend to wish we did. I think we might have the villains, though.

[Her smile is momentarily sad. She's seen too much to believe everyone with power aims to use it for good, just like she can't believe that all of them want to use it for ill, either. But people do, that much she does know, and she's fairly certain some of them sign her paycheques.

At least that's one thing that isn't likely to be different here. Small favours.]

[ He lets out a short, airy laugh at that; he knows the feeling all too well. Heroes didn't exist outside myths or those like Jack Vessalius, but villains seemed a plenty. ]

It's nice to meet you, Miss Dana. [ Or should he go with Ms. instead? Most of the women from modern society don't appreciate "Miss". ] They only exist in stories back home... heroes, I mean.

Yeah. Only stories.

[She seems distant for a moment, brooding, sucking on the inside of her cheek. Only in stories, but then she'd met a boy once with the power to manipulate electrical fields in his vicinity, to call lightning down from the heavens. He hadn't been a hero, though. Few people remarkable in that way really are. It's one of the things that worries her about this place.]

No, there are heroes, they just have to get by the same way normal people do.

[ It takes him a moment to decipher what she means. ]

Ah... doctors, police, and such?

Let's live it up

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)